It was Stephen Spender, translator of Schiller, Rilke and Cavafy, who said: “When you read and understand a poem, comprehending its rich and formal meanings, then you master chaos a little.” It is in Spender’s memory that hundreds of people enter the annual competition that bears his name, organised in association with the Guardian, by translating a poem of their choice, a process that requires mastery of the original text and thus a little triumph over the chaos of modernity. Their translation can be from verse in any language, ancient or modern, along with a brief commentary on the translation process. The competition is open to UK and Irish nationals and residents. Prizes are offered in three categories: 14-and-under, 18-and-under and open.

The three other judges (academic Susan Bassnett and poets WN Herbert and Stephen Romer) and I swiftly agreed on this year’s winner of the open category, Iain Galbraith, whose translation of “Quince Jelly” by the Hamburg poet Jan Wagner conveys Wagner’s sensuality, mastery of form and laser-eye for detail, while converting the whole into idiomatic English poetry. The aural delicacy and soft vowels of “The Wind”, from the medieval Welsh of Dafydd ap Gwilym, ensured second prize was awarded to Gwyneth Lewis, former national poet of Wales, while third prize went to Robert Hull, who skilfully captured the droll exasperation of Martial, a Spaniard writing Latin epigrams in imperial Rome.

Sam Norman won the 18-and-under category with a lyrical version of the tragic sequence in Homer’s Iliad when Andromache hears that her husband Hector is dead, in splendid contrast to the rhythmic, incantatory rendition of an Anglo-Saxon spell against warts for which Joshua James took second prize. Third prize in this category was shared by Rosemary Brook-Hart for her translation of a Pierre de Ronsard poem opening “Age hangs on you like sawdust hangs on velcro – / light, but irremovable” and Esther Sorooshian for Francis Ponge’s “The Frog”, who, in Esther’s version, has pretty legs “in the rubber glove of her skin”.

The winner of the 14-and-under category is Alexia Sloane who chose “J’ai lu que les poètes, en Chine” by the little-known Belgian poet Jean Dominique (real name: Marie Closset) because, as she wrote in her commentary, the musicality and images of the poem transported her to China. The Spender entrants spend thousands of hours creating their translations, small acts of mastery of the chaos all around us. Reading the results restores one’s faith in human nature as well as human artistry.

All the 2014 winning and commended entries, and those of previous years, can be read at stephen-spender.org. The 2015 competition will open in January.